“Alien: Covenant” Footage Drops Major Spoiler

Showing up at SXSW this weekend with fifteen minutes of footage from “Alien: Covenant,” filmmaker Ridley Scott has seemingly allowed the clip to reveal not just one of the film’s big plot points – but one that impacts the entire franchise.

The Verge published a description of a scene shown, one that not only ties back heavily to “Prometheus” but basically explains much of the origins of the final xenomorph creature we saw in the “Alien” franchise. Here’s an excerpt from their description:

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “ALIEN: COVENANT”

Michael Fassbender’s android David, definitely the same character from Prometheus and called David by name, walks Billy Crudup’s character through his personal workshop of biological terrors.

He shows off different mutations of the creatures, explaining that he has been trying to understand the aliens that were discovered in Prometheus, going so far as to genetically engineer new versions – a process that’s been waiting for one final puzzle piece to complete.

That’s when David takes him into a small chamber filled with four eggs that look identical to the ones seen in the original Alien. The final puzzle piece, David says, is “mother” — a waiting host — and Crudup’s character is lined up for the honor.

The dots are easy to connect: the alien as audiences saw it in 1979 wasn’t the result of evolution or natural selection. Instead, it was the result of an android intentionally breeding the most dangerous, lethal creature possible.

If accurate, this scene essentially explains some big things – namely the difference between the aliens in pretty much all the entries in the series. It also rules out an ‘Alien homeworld’ concept if the beasts have been engineered by David.